Pateshwar - An Offbeat Shiva Temple Complex

I had never heard of Pateshwar until I read Milind Gunaji’s book Offbeat Tracks in Maharashtra sometime in 2009. I added this one in my wish list of places to be visited.  As it often happens, we tend to give less importance to the nearby interesting places under the mistaken notion  that they are so close that we could visit any time and most often,  that time does not come. I have been living in Mumbai since 1951 but I visited  the famous Babulnath temple in south Mumbai for the first time only in May 2009 whereas I visited  Himlayan shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath  umpteen times.

Pateshwar is located 14 kms from Satara. After reaching Degaon village via the MIDC road, a 4 kms drive of which 2 kms are through a narrow ghat road takes to the road head one km before Pateshwar. From here, one has to walk to reach Pateshwar temple complex. The temple complex is revered by the people of Satara and its adjoining villages. But they visits this place only during Shivratri and Mondays of the Hindu month of Shravan. Rest of the year, the place is almost deserted except for  the  priest and two other persons who stay in the Mutt   throughout the year.

On way to Pateshwar

Last year, I and my friend Srinivasan had visited Satara to see Kaas Plateau of Flowers, Thosegar, Sajjangad and Bamnoli but  could not fit in Pateshwar in our tight schedule.  This year, I decided to make a revisit  to  Satara to see once again the  Kaas Plateau of Flowers, Bamnoli, Sajjangad, Thosegar falls and Chalkewadi, with my wife who had not seen these places. Somewhere on our way to Kaas, we decided to drop Thosegar falls and Chalkewadi in favour of Pateshwar. I am not a very religious kind of a person but over a period of time, I have started believing that some of the shrines can be visited only after getting  a divine call. The same driver of our hired Indica car who was not very receptive to our idea of visiting Pateshwar last year, was more than willing to take us to Pateshwar this time. So we seem to have got a divine call to visit Pateshwar this time.

Statue of Ganesh accompanied by Riddhi-Siddhi, his wives just after the start of the walk.

View from the ridge on way to Pateshwar.

We started for Pateshwar early morning from Radhika Hotel, Satara and after crossing NH4 via sub-way, we took the MIDC road to reach Degaon village. From here, it was 4 kms of drive on a narrow road  of which 2 kms was the ghat road to reach a point where the road ended.  Our driver had earlier told us  that he had taken a couple from Mumbai to Pateshwar a week back but  after walking a few steps, they felt that it was too secluded for their comfort. They were afraid that, being a dense forest, some wild animal may pounce on them.  So they turned back despite the assurance from our driver that the place was safe and there were no cases of wild animal attacking the visitors. With this background, we commenced our walk initially on a straight path. The moment we walked past the first curve, we felt that we were really in wilderness with no one around us except  some butterflies and a couple of exotic birds making frequent sorties.

Wildflowers - Malabar Delphinium on way to Pateshwar

Wildflower - Vegna  vekcilata  on way to Pateshwar

After climbing  stairways made of rocks, we reached the ridge. Halfway on the stairways, there was a small temple of Lord Ganesh accompanied by Riddhi and Siddhi, his wives. Once on the ridge, the path became once again straight. From the ridge we got a beautiful valley view of MIDC on the one side and rural Satara on the other side.  After about 100m walks, the path entered the dense forest mostly of teakwood and banyan trees giving us a welcome relief from the strong sun. It was a pleasant surprise for us to come across a variety of wildflowers on either side of the path. The most prominent on the valley side was a line of Malabar delphinium – a purple coloured wildflower. My wife helped me in spotting some of the wildflowers which we had not seen or missed them during our visit to Kaas Plateau of Flowers the previous day.  

Ancient pond in Pateshwar. At the far end is Sadguru Govindanand Maharaj Mutt

Stairway to the main Shiva temple, Pateshwar

After about half an hour, we walked past a square shaped pond partially covered with lotus flowers. Just opposite of the pond was Sadguru Govindanand  Maharaj Mutt. But the main Shiva temple was nowhere to be seen. Then we noticed that an old man in saffron dhoti was going towards  stairways right of the pond.  We followed him and met him halfway. He seemed surprised to see us. He looked very old (may be in 80s) and his voice was very feeble to fully understand as to what he said. I guess his name was Giri. He was the priest of the main Shiva temple and he was on his way to conduct pujas. During my brief talk with him, he discouraged me from taking pictures saying that in that process, we may overlook the beauty of this place and also miss the intricately carved statues. I told him that I take pictures of beautiful places such as this one to enable me to revive my memories of such visits when I am not in a position to revisit such places due to old age. He did not respond to my answer which meant that he saw merit in this argument.  We followed him and it was only after reaching the top of the stone stairways, we could see the main Shiva temple. 

The main Shiva temple, Pateshwar

Intricately carved Nandi of the main Shiva temple

The moment I was in the court yard of the temple, I fell in love with this serene and peaceful place. The temple was surrounded  by dense forest from all sides.  I would not have imagined that we would be in solitude in a place  which was just 14 kms from Satara city, 7 kms away from hustling bustling MIDC and just 4 kms away from Degaon village. I felt like spending the entire day of solitude to get a feel of the place. The temple was stated to be constructed some time in 16^th century AD. The intricately carved Nandi facing the temple was housed in a  Mandapam typical of Shiva temples. The main temple was in a slightly depleted condition but some of the stone carved statues adorning the inner walls of the temple as well as in two  small temples in the court yard were in good condition.  

The statue of Sheshashayee (Vishnu) adorniong the inner wall of the main Shiva temple 

The statue of Mahishshur Mardini in a small temple in the court yard of the main Shiva temple.

The rare four headed Shiva statue in the court yard of the main Shiva temple

After conducting abhisheks of the shivling inside the temple followed by the  aarti, the priest left the temple not before guiding us for our visit the eastern side of a cluster of smaller cave like temples, about 200m from the main Shiva temple,  which were supposed to contain one crore of shivlings of different sizes.  As we were walking through a narrow slushy path covered with the overgrowth of tree branches, I saw a dark brownish snake of about 5 feet in length crossing the path just 3-4 feet from me. I guess it was Dhaman (rat snake). Later, our driver confirmed that the place was infested with Dhamans, the  docile and harmless variety of snake. After a walk of about 100m, we came across 2 small temples housing shivlings of various sizes placed on platforms. Unfortunately, we could not enter these cave like temples as they were flooded with water. We had to satisfy ourselves by seeing these shivlings only from outside. I am sure that some snakes do reside in these cave like temples.

A platform with many thumb sized shivlings inside one of the cave like temples in Pateshwar 

A huge shivling  decorated with numerous thumb size shivlings in one of the cave like temples

A stone plaque with numerous thumb size shivlings inside one of the cave like temples.

One of the pillars in a cave like temple decorated with stone carved serpent and small shivlings

After a walk of another 100m, we came across a relatively  bigger temple  located almost underground except for the entrance. This temple had also intricately carved Nandi facing the sanctorum housing thousands of shivlings of various shapes  - from thumb size to as high as 5 feet tall. In one of the  two smaller cave like temples, there was a large and tall shivling of the height of about 5 feet. The shivling was decorated with numerous small shivlings of not more than thumb size.  We also saw some stone plaques placed on the cave walls fitted with numerous small shivlings. On our rough estimates, we must have seen at least around  ten thousands of shivlings. Eariler, one of the inmate of the Mutt had told my wife that one bag of rice will not be sufficient to place a single rice on each of the shivlings in the cave like temples. While this may be an overstatement, the fact remains that there are so many shivlings in these temples that one can easily lost count of them.   All these temples also housed some unidentified stone carved statues .My guess is that they may be of some sages.

A huge shivling decorated with thumb size shivlings in one of the cave like temples

A stone plaque with unidentified statues inside a cave like temple

It was pitched dark inside all the cave like temples. At one of the temples, I almost fell in the mini pond located in one of the corners of the sanctorum. Luckily, I could balance and stand in the pond with  knee deep water. The small pond roughly of the size of 2x2 feet collects water from the seepage of the cave walls. Probably, in olden days, the water from the pond was used for conducting daily abhisheks of shivlings.  I suddenly remembered that  I had torch in my pouch – a habit I have developed since my trekking days. But still the torch light was not sufficient to minutely observe the carvings. Another handicap was the absence of a knowledgeable guide. As of now, nothing is known as to who constructed these temples and about the artists who sculptured the Nandis, the statues and shivlings. 

A shivling with trimurti kept outside a cave like temple.

At the end of our trip, we felt most happy that we could visit such a awesome place by sacrificing our planned visit to Thosegar and Chalkewadi. These temples are archaeologically important but as of now there does not seem to be any caretaker for them. Fortunately, there is not much of vandalism here as very few people visit this place.

Our next and the last destination of the trip was Sajjangad but our driver suggested to spend some time at  Kshetra Mahuli ( also called Mahuli Sangam), the confluence of  Venna and Krishna rivers, which we agreed.  The place is hardly 5 kms from Satara off to Satara-Pandarpur road. There are four main temples on the banks of Krishna river – two on each of the sides. On the west bank of the Krishna river are Kashi Vishweshwar temple and Sangameshwar temples and on the east side of the river are Someshwar and Rameshwar temple. This place is also called ‘Dakshin Kashi’ and all the religious ceremonies conducted at Varanasi are also conducted  here.  Unfortunately, due to less time at our disposal, we could see only 17^th century constructed Kashi Vishweshar temple. Those interested in the temple architectures may require at least half a day to see all these temples and some smaller temples also. In fact, if we get a chance to visit Satara again, we would definitely spend more time here to see the temple architectures in detail. 

Krishna river at Kshetra Mahuli with Rameshwar temple in the background. It was sad to observe that Krishna river was used as a dhobi ghat and the stairways leading to Rameshwar temple as drying place.

Kashi Vishweshvar temple on the banks of Krishna river

Sangameshwar temple on the banks of Venna river at Kshetra Mahuli

After finishing lunch at Sayali Restaurant at  Powai Naka, we commenced our last destination of this trip – Sajjangad. Since I had already seen it last year, I sat down near the Swami Ramdas Samarth Mutt and let my wife have the round of temples. Thereafter,  we went to the famous table top located behind the temple complex. The views from the table top were great as usual. Compared to the last time when we had visited in the morning,  this time the afternoon sun fell directly on the valley giving a great photo opportunity. One of the regular visitors to this place had told me that the valley remains green throughout the year because of the Urmodi dam water. After spending about an hour or so, we returned to our hotel not before buying some Kandi Pedhas from Latkar Sweets located near Powai Naka to take back home,  the sweet memory of our trip to Satara.  

Table top of Sajjangad

Valley view from Sajjangad table top

Valley view from Sajjangad table top

More Pateshwar pictures.

Monsoon Trip to Kas Plateau, Sajjangad, Thoseghar Waterfalls and Chalkewadi - September 2010

My Kas Plateau trip was suddenly decided when I could no longer resist the temptation as series of beautiful wildflowers pictures of  Kas Plateau made their appearance on the websites as the peak season of blooming wildflowers began. I decided to make a visit to Kas in September itself as I had already firmed up my trip to Kodaikanal and Valparai during September 26 – October 3, 2010. My friend Srinivasan (KS) who had Kas Plateau in his ‘must visit’ list, agreed to join me for the trip.

Since both of us like to avoid long bus journey and being retired, time was not a constraint for us, we decided to make an easy pace trip making Satara as the base to cover not only Kas Plateau, but also Bamnoli village for boating in Shivsagar (Koyna) Lake, Sajjangad, Thoseghar Waterfalls and Chalkewadi. All these places are located within a radius of less than 40 kms west of  Satara. We could get train reservation only in Koyna Express  which meant that a full day each was lost  to and fro Mumbai which we did not mind. The train reached Satara railway station around 4.00 p.m. We engaged one of the autos parked outside the station for dropping us to our hotel (Radhika Palace). The 9 kms journey took less than 20 minutes for Rs.80/-. After check in hotel, we took a stroll on New Radhika Palace Road in a pleasant weather condition with Ajinkyatara Fort giving us the company. Satara city is located at the base of this fort. We also visited the market yard area where one of the state transport bus station was located. This place and area around Powai Circle seems to be the hub of Satara city as most of hotels, restaurants, shops etc are located in these areas. There are many shops selling Satara’s most famous kandi pedhas and obviously, we ended our stroll by having the taste of  kandi pedhas.

In the evening, we booked through our hotel, Indigo car for  two days  covering (Day-1) Kas Plateau, Kas Lake, Bomnoli village and Yevateshwar temple; (Day-2) covering Sajjangad, Thoseghar Falls, Chalkewadi Plateau and   Kuraneshwar Ganapati temple @ Rs.1500/- for full day.  Although the car agency was agreeable to  cover all these places in one day for Rs.1600/-, we felt that this would amount to a more of ‘touch and go’ trip than an easy pace trip. Since we wished to spend more time to spend on these places with the flexibility to places we liked enroute, we decided to do these places in two days. I am sure, one can hire the car a little bit cheaper by hard negotiation.  We took dinner at a multi-cuisine restaurant of Hotel Rajtara located close to our hotel. The food was good and relatively cheap. 

Kanher Lake seen from road to Kas plateau

Road to Kas Plateau

Mass blooming of pink balsams on Kas plateau.

Another patch of mass blooming of pink balsams in Kas plateau.

Day-1 : Kas Plateau, Kas Lake, Bomnoli,  Koyna Lake

After a breakfast of Idli, kande pohe and bread toasts in our hotel’s restaurant, we proceeded to Kas Plateau (25 kms from our hotel). The ghat section of the road to Kas starts from the bifurcation to the right just before the tunnel road on the left which goes to Thoseghar. Initially, sporadic wildflowers on both sides of the road made their appearance but they become widespread as we reached close to Kas plateau. There was not much of a traffic on an excellent road. We stopped near a grassland to take some pictures of Kanher lake and some surrounding villages in the valley right to the road. On the left of the road was a wide valley and  a part of Urmodi dam was visible at its base. 

 As we were near Kas plateau, the large patches of pink Balsams made their presence on both sides of the road. We alighted from the car near a makeshift  tea stall run by a Forest Guard and saw mass blooming of pink balsams in larges patches, on both sides of the road as far as our eyes could see. I just ran across the road to be in the midst of these wildflowers to take pictures. Like a kid trying to get hold of all toys at once, I was trying the same on flowers in regard to taking pictures. After some time, the over-excitement waned and I was now more rationale to observe various wildflowers first and take pictures thereafter. 

Close-up of pink balsams.

purple balsams in Kas plateau.

Multi-colour mass blooming of wildflowers in Kas.

A close-up of Aeriocolon Tuberifera.

On the other side of the road, the mass blooming of pink balsams was much more profuse and also covers some patches of purple/violet balsams and tiny white flowers. Here we spent more time as the varieties of flowers were much more than the opposite side of the road. We were lucky to have the company of a Botanist who was accompanying a group of elderly persons who seemed to be well versed with wildflowers. One of them carried a magnifying glass to located very tiny flowers which generally sprouted at the base of the Balsams plants. The Botanist helped us in locating Karvy flowers blooming on a bunch of plants in the midst of Balsams plants which, according to the Botanist, would start blooming in a couple of days. According to him, these wildflowers wither away in  3-4 days by which time mass blooming of flowers on other  plants would start thus keeping the Kas plateau full of wildflowers during the peak season, generally between mid-September and mid-October. He said that depending upon the extent of post-monsoon showers, the flowering season can extend up to Diwali. 

Cynitis (Abhali) In Kas plateau.

Murdannia (Abolima) in Kas.

Karvy flowers. This one is one of the three varieties of Karvy which blooms every year.

Wildflowers - Paracaryopsis on Kas Plateau

Mass blooming of pink balsams in Kas. In the background is 30 kms proposed  road to Mahabaleshwar.

As we walked in the direction of Kas Lake, there were more patches of mass blooming of pink Balsams with scattered yellow, purple and white flowers. We found yellow flowers mostly on the road sides. By now, we had spent nearly two hours on the Kas plateau and my rough estimate was that we had barely covered 10 percent of the plateau. For botany students and avid lovers of wildflowers, I guess, even a full day may not be sufficient. Moreover, as the Botanist told me, almost every week, one gets to see different varieties of wildflowers.  Hence visits to Kas plateau at different point of time during the peak flowering season may still be a worthwhile proposition for those interested in wildflowersAs we were about to end our exploration on the Kas plateau, my excitement was slowly turning into a despair and worry. I read on September 16 issue of Lokmat, a Marathi newpapers which carried prominently a news item that the meeting of investors called by Maharashtra Economic Development Corporation on September 17^th to develop the Kas Plateau and Kas Lake a tourist spot  followed by investors’ visit to these places was postponed. The newspaper carried the report that 17 Environmentalist Groups from Satara, Pune, Kolhapur, Mumbai and Karad had campaigned for keeping the ecologically sensitive Kas Plateau and Kas Lake out of bound for construction activities such as hotels and resorts.. The Groups’ motto was Adi Kas nantar vikas (First Kas than development). I don’t know how far these groups can carry out the agitation  preserving  virgin status of Kas in the name of  tourism. Some areas within Kas Plateau belong to private holders outside the core area.  Our driver was telling us that all the prime locations on the periphery of Kas Plateau and Kas Lake had already been bought by the influential investors at a throw away prices about 5-6 years back when the State Government announced the development of New Mahabaleshwar to ease the tourist traffic on Mahabaleshwar. Fortunately, no construction activities have so far started on these plots except the markings of the plots.

It was also worrisome for all  nature lovers to see the use of this heavenly place by the week-end picnickers from the nearby towns with the attendant problem of  accumulation of garbage of plastic bottles and bags left by them apart from  damages to the wildflowers plants. I had already seen one big group of picnickers sitting around the wildflowers having lunch.  One can imagine what would happen if the place becomes well known and more and more picnickers flock the place.

Appears to be  creatures belonging to flea family found in Kas plateau.

Kas Lake.

A cillage temple in midst of dense forest near Koyna Lake.

Koyna Lake at Bamnoli village.

The rise in Koyna lake water has covered some trees on its shore.

A 3 kms drive from Kas plateau took us to Kas Lake. The lake was located between two hill slopes with dam constructed on the third side and a elevated grassland on the opposite side to act as a natural barrier. The lake supplies drinking water to a part of Satara city. It was disgusting to see beer bottles and glass splinters scattered all over the shores of the lake. Our driver told us that it was  common to see some visitors getting injuries on their feet while standing in the lake water as these glass splinters have found place even inside the lake.

Next in our destination was Bamnoli village, about 10 kms from Kas Lake. The drive was a gradual descend with 2-3 tricky bends. We reached here around 1.30 p.m. After a quick snack of Missal-Pao in one of 3-4 dabhas located around the jetty, we proceeded towards jetty, about 100m from the dabha to look for a boat ride. There were two young men waiting for more than one hour to get more persons to share the cost of boat ride. As we just wanted to have a look at the Koyna Lake, we took the least expensive boat ride to Triveni Sangam, other boat rides being Tapola (45 minutes), Datta Mandir (45 minutes) and Vasota Fort (90 minutes). The cost was Rs.380/- per boat which had a capacity of 6 persons. Since we were 4 persons and the prospect of getting two more person for the boat ride appeared remote, four of us decided to share the cost and let the boat ride start. A 20 minute boat ride to Triveni Sangam was a nice experience in full to capacity lake with green hills, dense forest and grasslands all around. Triveni Sangam is the place within the Koyna Lake where Koyna, Solashi and Kandati rivers meet. The Sangam was not visible as the high lake water made the small island marking the Sangam submerged in the lake. Just opposite of the Triveni Sangam spot was the dense forest forming a part of Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary which is earmarked  for project tiger. A 20 minutes return boat ride brought us to Bamnoli village. My watch showed  2.30 p.m. and it was time for the return journey to Satara. 

The grassland at the shore of Koyna Lake is the favorite spot for film shootings. 

Bamnoli village temple seen from baot ride in Koyna Lake.

Multi-colour wildflowers on Kas road.

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Wildflower-Rhamphicarpa on Kas-Satara Road.

After a continued accent to Kas Plateau, we once again spent some time here to click some more wildflower pictures.   On the way, we took a tea break at a restaurant run by Prakruti Ayurvedic Health Resort, about 8 kms from Satara. Earlier our driver had suggested that we take lunch here on our return from Kas  for which lunch order had to be placed in advance. We, however, drop the idea as we were not sure as to how much time would take to complete the boat ride in Koyna Lake. In the event, our judgement was good as we could reach here only around 4.00 p.m. But looking at the menu and also the quality of tea and onion pokodas we had, it seems we  have missed a good Maharashtrian lunch including Pithala Bhakhari . We returned to our hotel room at 5.30 p.m. after a short visit to Yevateshwar temple on the way. I noticed on arrival at the hotel that I had a mild sun burn on my face and hands despite being a pleasant weather and wearing a cap. After an early dinner of Gujarati Thali at our hotel’s restaurant, we retired for the day.

A beautiful grassland for buffaloes on the side of Kas-Satara Road 

Ajinkyatara Fort. A part of Satara city is located at its base.

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Sajjangad Fort seen from Satara-Thoseghar road.

Day-2 : Sajjangad Fort-Thoseghar Waterfalls-Chalkewadi Plateau

We proceeded to Sajjangad Fort (16 kms from our hotel). The ghat section of the road started from Gajwadi village and after about 3 kms of climb, an ‘U’ turn from Thoseghar road took us to the parking lot located at the base of the Fort. There are few dabhas located here. About an easy climb of 100 odd steps took us to the top of the Fort through three doorways.  On the way, there were some wildflowers,  many of which we had not seen on the Kas Plateau. Some hardy pilgrims start 750 step climb to Sajjangad from Parali village, 10 kms from Satara.

My first impression of Sajjangad (Fort of good people) was that it was more of village on a table top than a fort. Also it is more of a pilgrimage place than a picnic spot. The Fort is managed by Shri Ramdas Swami Sansthan. Being a place of Samadhi by Samarth Ramdas Swami, the spiritual guru of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, it is a holy place.  The Sansthan provides free lodging and food for the devotees of Samarath Ramdas Swami. I was happy to note that despite being a pilgrimage centre, the place was well-maintained. The Samadhi place has been converted in to a temple. There is an Ashram close to the temple. Beyond the temple was a vast table top grassland for an excellent walk as well as amazing views of Urmodi dam and lake, valley views and also other table top mountains. There is  viewing spot  at the north-west corner of the table top – the only place which reminds us of a fort. At the edges and slopes of the table top grassland are a few varieties of wildflowers.

Valley seen from steps of Sajjangad Fort.

Urmodi dam seen from Sajjangad Fort.

A table top seen from Sajjangad Fort.Maruti temple on the Sajjangad is on left

During my walk on the table top, I met an elderly couple who had come from Badlapur -  a town on the outskirt of Mumbai. They have been visiting  Sajjangad at least once in a year  at different seasons. They told me that the valleys around Sajjangad  are green all through the year. Their philosophy – Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani and Matheran are for youngsters and Sajjangad for elders. I at once agreed with them as this place is much more serene and peaceful than the popular hill stations of Maharashtra. After spending nearly two hours on the table top, we came down to the base of the fort after paying a short visit to Anglai Devi temple. 

Sajjangad table top with Maruti temple at the far end.

Valley view with villages seen from Sajjangad Fort.

Wildflowers in Sajjangad.

Wildflower in Sajjangad.

Wildflower in Sajjangad.

View of a beautiful grassland from Sajjangad Fort.

A 10 kms drive from Sajjangad brought us to Thoseghar car parking lot located near the Forest Rest House. From here, a descend on a mud path of one km to the left of parking lot through the forest led us to a Viewing Gallery for waterfalls. There are side paths on way to Viewing Gallery with opportunity to see some wildflowers. There were two prominent waterfalls – the height of the waterfall on the left was higher than the main waterfall but the latter was more wider and forceful  making a thundering noise before it falls in the pond at its base. From the right of the Viewing Gallery, there is a  narrow mud path to view the main waterfall from another angle. I tried to reach that viewing point  but had to give up half way as it was too narrow and dangerously slippery. I saw some youngsters coming back from this path fully drenched. Since it was not raining, I guess, these youngsters must have gone down to the pond to for a swim.

The Main Thoseghar waterfalls seen from Viewing Gallery.

Another Thoseghar waterfall longer than the main one.

This Wildflower is found plenty around Thoseghar.

From Thoseghar, it was 5 kms of drive to Chalkewadi village from where about one km of of climb on a road full of potholes ended on a vast plateau with many wind mills. From here, one can see hundred of wind mills installed on adjoining plateaus. These wind mills collectively produce around 7.5 mw of  electricity. There are also some patches wildflowers on the Chalkewadi plateau but not as profuse as in Kas plateau. We returned to our hotel in Satara by 2.30 p.m after a short visit to Kuraneshwar temple enroute. And that was the end of our short and exhilarating trip to Satara. Next day, we returned to Mumbai by Koyna Express.

Chalkewadi Wind Mills.

 

Wildflowers in Chalkewadi plateau.

Wildflowers in Chalkewadi plateau.

A valley view with Sajjangad in the background from Satara road.

For more pictures click on the link below: 
Picturs of Kas, Sajjangad, Thoseghar